Mormon Musings

Romans 4: 1  What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?   2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath  b whereof  to glory; but not before God.   3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 18 Who against hope believed in hope , that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.   19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:   20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;   21 And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform . Hebrews 11: 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: ...

Much has been said in this conference, and more will be said, I am sure, about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the great miracle of the resurrection and his message to the world. It is by him and through him only that we have hope of resurrection and life after death. Through his prophets and by his own teachings, he gave us the plan of life and salvation, which if accepted and lived will give us the greatest joy and success and happiness while we sojourn here upon the earth, and eternal life hereafter. While here he taught us the importance of prayer and how to pray, and it is on this subject that I should like to address you for just a few moments. He said: “… When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. … “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which see...

The ancient prophets knew that after the darkness there would come light.  We live in that light--but do we fully comprehend it?  With the doctrines of salvation easily within our grasp, I fear that some are still overcome with the "spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear." (Romans 11:8)...I ask us all to honestly evaluate our performance in scripture study.  It is a common thing to have a few passages of scripture at our disposal, floating in our minds, as it were, and thus to have the illusion that we know a great deal about the Gospel.  In this sense, having a little knowledge can be a problem indeed.  I am convinced that each of us, at some time in our lives, must discover the scriptures for ourselves--and not just discover them once, but rediscover them again and again. President Spencer W. Kimball " How Rare a Possession--the Scriptures !" Ensign, September 1976, pp 2, 4 I...

Asking God for our daily bread, rather than our weekly, monthly, or yearly bread, is also a way to focus us on the smaller, more manageable bits of a problem. To deal with something very big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites. Sometimes all we can handle is one day (or even just part of one day) at a time. Let me give you a nonscriptural example. A book I read recently, titled  Lone Survivor,  recounts the tragic story of a four-man team of U.S. Navy SEALs on a covert mission in a remote sector of Afghanistan five and one-half years ago. When they were inadvertently discovered by shepherds—two men and a boy—these specially trained Navy servicemen had a choice either to kill the two or let them go, knowing that if they let them live they would disclose the team’s location and they would be attacked immediately by al Qaeda and Taliban forces. Nevertheless, they let the innocent shepherds go, and in the firefight that followed, only the author, Marcus Luttrell, surv...

Look to God for What Is Needed Each Day In Luke it is recorded that one of His disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” ( Luke 11:1 ). Jesus then gave a pattern for prayer that has become known as the Lord’s Prayer. The same is recorded in Matthew as part of the Sermon on the Mount (see  Matthew 6:9–13 ). Included in the Lord’s Prayer is the petition “Give us this day our daily bread” ( Matthew 6:11 ) or “Give us day by day our daily bread” ( Luke 11:3 ). I believe that we would all readily acknowledge that we have needs each day that we want our Heavenly Father’s help in dealing with. For some, on some days, it is quite literally bread—that is, the food needed to sustain life that day. It could also be spiritual and physical strength to deal with one more day of chronic illness or a painfully slow rehabilitation. In other cases it may be less tangible needs, such as things related to one’s obligations or activities in that day—teaching a ...